Subjective well-being, parent–adolescent relationship, and perceived parenting style among Israeli adolescents involved in a gap-year volunteering service

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In the past few decades, many older Israeli adolescents have postponed mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces to volunteer for a year of civil service during the gap year after high school. They meet, for the first time, the complexity of Israeli society, ethnic diversity, social disparity, and other painful aspects of human life. To date there is no research on the subjective well-being (SWB) of these adolescents, and specifically with regard to the parenting characteristics that contribute to their SWB.

Objective: The present study aims to explore the contribution of parenting style and parent–adolescent relationship to the well-being of these adolescents.

Participants: One hundred ninety-eight Jewish Israeli adolescents participating in 1-year gap-year programs, recruited via email through their program coordinators.

Methods: We collected demographic information and information on parenting style (Parental Authority Questionnaire [PAQ]; Buri, J. R. 1991. “Parental Authority Questionnaire.” Journal of Personality Assessment 57 (1): 110–119), adolescent SWB (Personal Wellbeing Index [PWI-A]: International Wellbeing Group. 2006. Personal Wellbeing Index. 5th ed. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University), and perceived parent–adolescent relationship (Parental Attachment Scale [PAS]; Chapple, C. L. 2006. “Parental Attachment Scale (PAS).” In Measures for Clinical Practice and Research: A Sourcebook: Vol. 1. Couples, Families, and Children, edited by K. Corcoran, and J. Fischer, 388–389. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press).

Results: Adolescent SWB was positively correlated with parent–adolescent relationship and authoritative parenting style. Moreover, parent–adolescent relationship partially mediated the relationship between authoritative parenting style and SWB and between authoritarian parenting style and SWB.

Conclusion: Results demonstrate the crucial role of the parent–child relationship in linking parenting style and adolescent SWB during the gap-year period.

KEYWORDS:

• Late adolescents
• gap year
• Subjective well-being
• parenting style
• parent–adolescent relationship

Acknowledgement

The research performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Tel-Hai college research committee in Israel.

VSG and AG acquired, analyzed, and interpreted the data; drafted the manuscript; reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content; and approved the final version of the manuscript submitted. VSG and AG are the guarantors of this work and, as such, had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Alon Goldberg http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3267-1947